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20 Centavos
| Issuer | Banco Nacional de los Estados Unidos de Colombia |
|---|---|
| Year | 1885 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 20 Centavos (0.20 COP) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Black letterpress on an aqua guilloche underprint, with the Colombian coat of arms — condor with spread wings above a quartered shield bearing the motto LIBERTAD Y ORDEN — positioned at upper center, flanked by the bank's name in bold typography. Circular guilloche rosettes at left and right each carry the numeral '20', while the denomination VEINTE CENTAVOS appears in large script across the center field. The date '15 DE MARZO DE 1885' and series designation 'SERIE Y' are inscribed at upper right, with the promise-to-pay legend in italic script and three manuscript director signatures below. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Log in to see details |
| Reverse lettering | BANCO NACIONAL BOGOTÁ EL CAJERO (Translation: National Bank Bogota Cashier) |
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| Comments |
The Banco Nacional de los Estados Unidos de Colombia was a short-lived state institution, established in 1880 and dissolved after the currency chaos that followed the War of a Thousand Days. The 1885 date is significant: the country was in the middle of a civil war that year — the Revolution of 1885 — which accelerated the bank's shift toward forced-currency policies and ultimately contributed to the inflationary spiral of the late 1880s and 1890s.
Printed locally by Litografía D. Paredes in Bogotá rather than contracted abroad, this fractional note reflects the logistical pressures of wartime monetary production. Domestic lithography of this period rarely matched European intaglio standards, and small-denomination issues like this one were the most prone to crude counterfeiting.